D is for Dublin — A Reading List #AtoZChallenge

I’m doing the A to Z Challenge in April, using the theme of the UK & Ireland. For the letter D, I’m looking at the books that I most enjoyed before, during, and after our trip to Ireland, including several days in Dublin.

Dublin is human-scaled. The buildings are low, the streets are wide, and everything on a tourist’s list is within walking distance. At the tops of hills or buildings, you get a grand vista over the city, more like a landscape than a skyline.

Samuel Beckett Bridge (designed by Santiago Calatrava) and Dublin’s low skyline, taken through the sunroof of the boat during a rainy day cruise on the River Liffey

Because of that human scale, Dublin is well-represented by its literature. These are the books that really helped me inhabit the landscape when I visited Dublin in 2012:

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D is for Dublin — A Reading List #AtoZChallenge — 5 Comments

Oh, Dublin! I lived and worked there for a year, and even if this was many years ago, I’m still very attached to the city. I visit everytime I can and I still have a couplefriends there.

I love Irish literature. I’m trying to read Dubliners, but I’m finding it very difficult. Joyce’s writing is so layered you can’t just read him casually.
My favourite time is – guess what! – the 1920s. I have an Irish friend, David Lawlor, who’s written a series of novels set in that time. He’s very knowledgeable in Irish history, his novels are among the best I’ve read set during the Irish War of Indipendence and Irish Civil War.